Amazon RDS for MySQL features

Working with Amazon RDS for MySQL

Amazon RDS allows you to use the AWS Management Console or a simple set of web services APIs to create, delete and modify relational database instances (DB Instances). You can also control access and security for your instance(s) and manage your database backups and snapshots. For a full list of the available Amazon RDS APIs, please see the Amazon RDS API Guide.

Migrating to Amazon RDS for MySQL

If your application already relies on a MySQL database, importing data to Amazon RDS is simple. In general, to migrate your data to Amazon RDS you simply:

Create a DB Instance with the compute, storage capacity and access controls required.

For smaller databases (e.g. up to 1 GB), extract the data with mysqldump and pipe it directly into Amazon RDS. Below is an example showing the “acme” database being copied to Amazon RDS:

For larger databases, build your database schema in Amazon RDS, then convert the data into a flat file and import it into your DB Instance using the mysqlimport utility. Below is an example showing the “acme” database being copied to Amazon RDS:

Paying for What You Use

You will be charged at the end of each month for the Amazon RDS resources you actually consume. Once a DB Instance you have created is available for connection, you will be charged for each hour your DB Instance is running. Each DB Instance will run until termination, which occurs when you issue an API call to delete the DB Instance, or in the event of an instance failure. Partial DB Instance hours consumed are billed as full hours. In addition to DB Instance hours, you are also billed for your monthly storage, I/O requests, and backups. If you scale your storage capacity within the billing period, your bill will be pro-rated accordingly.